Plane Maneuvered to Avoid Object : Pilot Recounts Sighting Enormous UFO

A veteran pilot whose UFO sighting was confirmed on radar screens says that the thing was so enormous that his Japan Airlines cargo plane was tiny compared to the mysterious object.

Capt. Kenju Terauchi also said there were two other small unidentified objects--smaller than his cargo carrier--that did not appear on radar.

Terauchi, his co-pilot and flight engineer all told Federal Aviation Administration investigators that they saw UFO lights.

“They were flying parallel and then suddenly approached very close,” said Terauchi, 47, who requested and received FAA permission to take whatever evasive action was necessary to avoid the UFO that appeared for a time on FAA and Air Force radar and on the radar screen in the cockpit of JAL Flight 1628.

Terauchi this week described the UFO incident of Nov. 17, which was revealed by the FAA.

Glimpses in Silhouette

Terauchi, a pilot for 29 years, said he briefly glimpsed the large unknown object in silhouette, and he said: “It was a very big one--two times bigger than an aircraft carrier.”

Terauchi made a drawing of the large UFO, looking something like a giant walnut-shaped object, with big bulges above and below a wide flattened brim.

The captain, who is stationed in Anchorage with his family, was flying the jumbo jet from Iceland to Anchorage on a Europe-to-Japan flight when the crew had its unexplained encounter in clear weather over Alaska.

“It was unbelievable,” he said, acknowledging that some of his colleagues have doubts about what the crew saw.

‘Professional’ Crew

FAA investigators who questioned the crew in Anchorage concluded they were “normal, professional, rational, (and had) no drug or alcohol involvement,” the report by FAA Security Manager Jim Derry said.

Terauchi said the crew was not frightened but wanted to avoid whatever was lit up in their flight path. That’s why they went along with FAA directives to drop 4,000 feet and make turns--including a complete 360-degree turn, he said.

Asked why he thought UFOs would tail his chartered plane, Terauchi laughed and replied: “We were carrying Beaujolais, a very famous wine made in France. Maybe they want to drink it.”